Ironman Texas loose ends and some Silicon Valley Long Course love

I still keep reflecting on Ironman Texas and what things worked for me and what I need to work on. Here’s a few thrown together thoughts and photos that I have left over.

Oh! And the “Finisher’s Video” that I got.

Mike Reilly did in fact call me an Ironman at the finishing line, however the video didn’t capture that epic moment. 🙁

Here are some photos!

The worst part of these trips is dropping this guy off at the vet for boarding. Kills me every time 🙁

T1 at full Ironman events are very clean - much the opposite of most other races.

I think I was still a bit confused from the whole horizontal to vertical thing.

Happy with my fit so far, but I think I can likely start lowering my cockpit more. (Stop thinking that way, you dirty pervert.)

Oh god I could eat this every day for the rest of my life and I would die a happy (and very large) man.

What do I think I did right?

Nutrition – Up until the last loop of the run course I was feeling great with no stomach problems. I generally don’t have digestion problems but sometimes don’t keep up on calorie in-take during long endurance events. I can’t remember all that I had but here’s a basic run down of what foods kept me going.

Honeystinger Waffles – I believe I had 5 or so of these things. Definitely my favorite thing to eat while cycling – very tasty and go down easy.

Powerbar Gel Blasts – I’m not really much of a fan of gels, but these gummy style bites are a great alternative. I emptied a couple bags of these into a ziploc bag and took them when I felt necessary. I mixed the raspberry and strawberry banana flavors. (3 packages total)

Clif Shot Blocks – I love the tropical flavor and saved the package for the run course to switch it up.

Powerbar Perform – The on course sports drink. I actually like the lemon lime on the bike, but didn’t care for the mango on the run course. I tried to alternate bottles of this at the bike aid stations and…

Water!

Potato chips – On the run course when salt was needed very badly. Ate maybe two handfuls over the entire marathon.

Chicken broth – best thing I ever tasted.

Bike pacing – I was happy with my bike split. 17.6mph over 112 miles isn’t very fast but I felt like I left enough “juice” in the tank to be able to give a valiant effort on the run.

Not panicking after being punched in the face multiple times during the first 5 minutes of the swim. I’ve been hit before plenty of times, but never so much in such a little amount of time. The Ironman washing machine was amazing and intimidating.

Thanking the volunteers every time I could – without them the race wouldn’t have been the amazing experience it was. I tried to thank every single one I could for doing what they did. Great people.

What do I think I did wrong?

Weight – This one is obvious. I still need to shed at least a minimum of 25 pounds on my frame. I’ve come a long way so far but I’ve been stalled for way too long. It’s my own fault for not controlling my diet more and using the “I’m training” attitude too much. I think this is the hardest to fix for me but I have to try. A lighter weight will increase my speed and endurance since I’m essentially strapping a 25lb (35lb?) plate to my belly and going out there doing this.

Brick Workouts – I didn’t do nearly enough of these at all. It wouldn’t have prevented the meltdown that I had with blisters on the run course but I would have gotten a lot further along than I did before that epic meltdown! Respect the brick!

Bike Workouts – My cycling workouts were much more rare than they should have been. Yes I’m happy with my pacing but I know I could’ve been much better if I spent adequate time out in the saddle. It is the sport out of the three that I feel the most comfortable so I neglect it too much.

Heat adaptation – Not sure how the hell I could be prepared for that Houston heat but there has to be a way! Lock myself in the sauna for a while? Wear layers? I think I just got unlucky with the California weather too.

I have many more things that pop in and out of my head that I wish I did differently but those are the main ones. I have to lay off that BBQ!

Will I do it again!?

YES. I’m already in the planning stages of picking a new venue for another challenge, and this time I’m bringing a partner. Kelly is going to join me on the next Ironman journey. Very excited and will post updates on here shortly.

I’m under the impression now that life is way too short to stay sedentary and indoors, so…

Silicon Valley Long Course

A triathlon in my backyard! They added a new long course (1 mile swim / 56 mile bike / 9 mile run) format for this year. I did the SVIT (Olympic Distance) last year and the recap is in this post.

I did a bit better than I was expecting, especially after the Ironman a few weeks earlier.

Swim: 34:53 (Making progress, happy, goal time was under 38 minutes.)
Bike: 2:55:34 (19.1mph, happy with this too, goal time was under 3:10)
Run: 1:28:59 (Goal for this was 10 minute miles, 1:30! whew)

Total time ended up being 5:05:02. Honestly would have been happy with anything under 5:30.

This was Kelly’s first attempt at this distance and she did very well. She completed two sprints and an Olympic so far, so this was a big step up.

Kelly finishing!

All done and gloating after finishing 🙂

Finishers medal

Whew, sorry for the big blast of random things flying around. Organization isn’t my cup of tea. I really don’t have too much going on until mid-July when the Vineman 70.3 is and I’m looking forward to getting revenge on my performance from last year!